Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (64/100) |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Blender | |
| Robert Christgau | (A) |
| Entertainment Weekly | C− |
| HipHopDX | |
| Pitchfork Media | (6.5/10) |
| NME | (7/10) |
| RapReviews | (8.0/10) |
| Uncut | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Village Voice | (A) |
| USA Today | |
Upon its release, Encore received positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, based on 26 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Despite the commercial success of the album, it has been subject to some criticism for its tone and simplified lyricism compared to Eminem's past albums. Conversely, in terms of controversy, this album attracted less notoriety than previous Eminem albums due to the fact that shock-oriented lyrics were toned down somewhat in favor of a lighter approach than Eminem's previous three albums. However, the album did provoke some controversy over anti-Bush lyrics and lyrics that parodied and targeted Michael Jackson, who was upset about Eminem's depiction of him in the video for "Just Lose It". On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service admitted it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the President of the United States, George Bush, after the song "We as Americans", as an unreleased bootleg, circulated with the lyrics "Fuck money, I don't rap for dead presidents. I'd rather see the president dead." This line was eventually used as a sample in Immortal Technique's single "Bin Laden", which featured Mos Def and Chuck D. The incident was later referenced in the video for his song "Mosh" as one several news clips on a wall, along with other newspaper articles about other unfortunate incidents in Bush's career. The song eventually appeared on the album's bonus disc, where the lyrics were extensively censored.
Eminem has shown his disapproval of the album, because he became addicted to prescription drugs at this time: the album, along with The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show, is mentioned in his song "Careful What You Wish For" on the original bonus disc of Relapse. He mentions the critics saying that Encore didn't match the caliber of the other albums. On the song "Talkin' 2 Myself" on his album Recovery, he raps that the album "doesn't count" due to the drugs involved.
Read more about this topic: Encore (Eminem album)
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